Tasmanian Labor is warning of “complete chaos” in the state parliament as new MPs from the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) reportedly distance themselves from their namesake.
Rebekah Pentland, Andrew Jenner and Miriam Beswick are accused of “walking away” from the reason they were elected to the party, with Labor suggesting they were only voted in because of Jacqui Lambie’s name.
The comments come as reports surface that the JLN MPs sent an ultimatum to Senator Lambie in early June, telling her to ‘stop interfering’ in state affairs.
On Tuesday, the MPs confirmed they are planning to renegotiate their deal to remove restrictions on how they vote when their current agreement expires in 12 months, but refuted claims of issuing any ultimatum.
“I don’t think there’ll be any pushback from [the government], I think they’d be quite happy to renegotiate, knowing how we work together,” Jenner told the ABC.
“We want a stable government, the economy needs it. The last thing we want to do in Tasmania is make it unbalanced.”
Shadow Treasurer Josh Willie said the trio, elected under the Lambie brand, were moving towards potentially creating a “very destabilising” situation for both the Parliament and the economy.
“You also have [them] threatening to rip up the agreement that is providing stability to the parliament,” he said.
“They’ll effectively, if that agreement is ripped up, be operating as three independents.”
He said the network’s chances of survival are diminishing daily.
“This is destabilising for the parliament, make no mistake and this is a test of Jeremy Rockliff’s leadership now,” Willie said.
“He’s presiding over a coalition of chaos, he said it himself in the election: ‘Don’t elect a coalition of chaos’. He’s now governing one.”
“He said it would crash jobs and the economy, it would crash our health system. We know that the economy is shedding jobs, we know that our health system is in crisis and now they’re embarking upon job cuts within the health system.”
Minister Felix Ellis said the state government will continue to work constructively with the JLN.
“They’re doing a great job as new members of parliament. They’re focused on certainty and stability for the community and making sure that we can really make a tangible difference for Tasmanians,” he said.
“We know that there are other people, including the opposition, sadly, who are just focused on political games.”
